A blog for the United States branch of the global Centre for Fortean Zoology

At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is - we believe - the largest professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. Since 2009 we have been running the increasingly popular CFZ Blog Network, and although there has been an American branch of the CFZ for over ten years now, it is only now that it has a dedicated blog.

1965: Mrs. Seraphine Jasper reports a daylight sighting of
Sasquatch from Nicomen Island, near Mission, British Columbia. She describes
the creature as tall and black, crossing a farmer's field while cows stare at
it curiously.

The Etruria concerned is not the ancient home of the Etruscans (modern Tuscany, Italy), but a village in Staffordshire, England. It came into existence when celebrated potter Josiah Wedgwood founded his factory there in 1769.Nearby legend speaks of a phantasmal White Rabbit seen in the woods there. It was supposed to be a beautiful creature, the color of milk. The story runs that a man once tried to catch it. He saw it and grabbed it, or so he thought, but his arms closed on nothing. The White Rabbit had vanished.

Saturday, 28 May 2016

In 1971 J. Ellis observed a strange animal in the Congo. It was a reptilian, 30' in length. It had plates on its back. Initially in the river, it left it and entered the forest. Ellis reported that it seemed a familiar animal to the locals.This animal sounds surprisingly like a member of the stegosaur tribe. As far as we know, stegosaurs lived around 150 million years ago. There is no indication in the fossil record that a population survived, but we must always bear the limitations of the fossil record in mind. The stegosaur had a tiny brain. The idea that they harbored a second brain in their tails has now been shown to be false. They had plates on their backs and spikes on their tails. It is possible that, at least sometimes, the plates were in two rows. They could not be used as weapons due to their fragility. It is thought, on the other hand, that their tail-spikes could land a serious blow. They were herbivores and lived in North America, Africa and Asia (where they possibly originated).

2012: While setting turtle traps in a lake near DeBary,
Florida, at 11:00 a.m., a father and his two teenage sons find footprints
"larger than normal" in mud. Soon afterward, they glimpse "some
movement" and "didn't think much of it," until one of the boys
spoke to his father and "described exactly what I saw even though I never
described what I saw." The father—an elementary schoolteacher—subsequently
says he saw "a tall red-colored bipedal figure about ¼ mile away. It was standing
near the road, and it moved into the woods."

2013: Passing through Twin Hills Park in Crestview, Florida,
an unnamed witness glimpses a bizarre entity around 3:00 p.m. She describes it
as a "completely black, slim, man-shaped shadow" that rises from the
ground, gripping a tree trunk with its hands and the soles of its feet. She
estimates the thing's height at around five feet tall, vanishing into shrubbery
before she gets a better look. It leaves her with "the eeriest
feeling" that it was watching nearby children "as if they were
prey."

Thursday, 26 May 2016

Let us go back to 1910. In July of that year a couple named Schroder were sitting outside. They saw "birds" that did not appear to have feathers flying overhead. These birds were of very great size. They had long heads. In fact, they sound awfully like Pterosaurs. Although Pterosaurs are supposedly extinct, a surprising number of creatures resembling them have been reported in modern times, both in the United States and elsewhere. The fossil record, of course, tells us they died out a long time ago; but what must be borne in mind is that the fossil record is incomplete. Maybe nobody told the Pterosaurs they were extinct!

1897: Witnesses Bob Forner and Charles Luskins allegedly
came to grips with a curly-haired Sasquatch near Rome, Ohio, but failed in
their barehanded effort to capture it. Cleveland's Plain Dealer newspaper
reported their exploit the following day. Skeptics regard the story as an
example of 19th-century "silly season" journalistic hoaxing.

We have noticed to our great delight that a great many of the hits on this site come from Eastern Europe.We would be very pleased to receive reports and articles from this part of the world. If you would like to contribute, please get in touch. We also are pleased to enrol members from any country in the world. The CFZ currently has hundreds of members in many countries. Contact information:e-mail: coghlanronan@gmail.comtelephone: 0441237431413address: Centre for Fortean Zoology, Myrtle Cottage, Woolfardisworthy, Bideford, EX39 5QR

1972: Police in Tazewell County, Illinois, receive more than
200 phone calls reporting encounters with "Cohomo"—the "Cole
Hollow Road Monster"—said to be a shaggy creature covered
with white hair, suspected of living beneath an abandoned house on the road in
question. Hysteria continues through July, and is later repeated in 2006, but
patrols by law enforcement and armed vigilantes find nothing. In at least one
sighting from 1972, a UFO was also reported nearby.

2015: Father-and-son Bigfoot hunters visit Ohio's Cuyahoga
Valley National Park (Summit County) at 1:00 a.m., "doing calls" to
attract the creature when they suddenly hear a "very long whoop." The
youth describes it as a scream and "the most scariest sound I have ever
heard." They record the sound for comparison to alleged Sasquatch calls
found online and report it being very similar. An identical incident reportedly
occurs on June 6, near the same location.

The name of this hominid/humanoid was taken from Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark. This is the story of the legendary creature and his bride, Hootin' Annie. This name sounds suspiciously like the word hootenanny for a musical session. This word in this sense is not recorded before 1940. However, it was used earlier to mean a tool, an implement or something of the sort.